Tag Archives: process

Process Post 12: Community Guidelines

I don’t have comments enabled for most of my blog posts.

At first, it was because the first few posts I created weren’t aimed at receiving commentary—they were just to set up the premise of my blog. I have two thoughts about this now:

  1. If I open up comments on my blog posts, this blog space can become an active community space where I interact with my audience.
  2. If I don’t open comments on my blog posts, this blog will serve as an informational hub, but to connect with my audience, I definitely should have other platforms where there is open communication.

With the latter thought in mind, my post last week on how I might incorporate transmedia storytelling seems like the most ideal situation for my audience. However, in “The Psychology of Online Comments,” Maria Konnikova states that moving from a single blog post to larger environments on social media “often produce less than desirable effects, including a diffusion of responsibility: you feel less accountable for your own actions, and become more likely to engage in amoral behavior” (Konnikova, 2013).

It’s an assumption, but I don’t think Pokémon GO players spend all of their time commenting on blogs—they probably come here for what they need and take off to where they normally spend their time online, so it’s possible that turning off blog comments isn’t the sole cause of such “amoral behaviour” on a broader social platform.

The thought of opening up to commentary in a community I’m technically responsible for is quite daunting, and feels different than if I’m a business responding to potential customers. WordPress has the ability to let you approve comments before they are shown under a blog post, and most social media platforms have comment filtering functions to ensure that certain words and phrases you won’t allow will not show in your comment section. However, limiting comments too intensively can also negatively affect the comment section. As mentioned in the article, removing comments can lower your audience’s willingness to engage with your content, which will affect whether they share it with others (Konnikova, 2013).

With all of this in mind, I’ve come up with short list of community guidelines for my blog:

  • Is it respectful? Even if you disagree with somebody, they should be treated with respect. Avoid using derogatory language and dishing out personal attacks.
  • Absolutely no hate speech allowed. This is a community where everybody is welcome, so discrimination, hatred, and violence against individuals or groups of people for any reason is not tolerated.
  • Are you trolling? Please do not post comments with the sole purpose of provoking others in the community.
  • Do not promote your own products or services, or post irrelevant links.
  • Please have fun! This is an open environment where fellow Pokémon GO Trainers should feel safe to interact with each other, no matter how little or often they play.

Konnikova, M. (2013, October 23). The Psychology of Online Comments. The New Yorker. Retrieved April 11, 2023, from https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/the-psychology-of-online-comments

Process Post 11: Transmedia Storytelling

Does it make sense to integrate transmedia storytelling for Spinning with Stufful?

When reading “Pokemon as Transmedia Storytelling,” I found it interesting to observe how the world of Pokémon extended past an animated series and became a massive franchise, complete with card games, handheld games, and mobile games. With Pokémon Sleep set to launch this summer, and my current Pokémon GO antics, the show I used to watch as a child is truly beginning to merge effortlessly into my everyday life.

When I try to draw parallels to my blog, and how transmedia storytelling could be integrated to that sort of effect, I can only really think about repurposing content onto different social media platforms. Henry Jenkins explains in “Transmedia Storytelling 101” that in transmedia storytelling, “there is no one single source or ur-text where one can turn to gain all of the information needed to comprehend [the universe]” (Jenkins, 2007). That means that my audience might come to my blog for one type of content, and related additional content might be on my TikTok page, and so forth.

In that sense, I could see this happening in very subtle ways. While I haven’t taken care at all to post on my Twitter account, my audience could receive bits and pieces of my everyday gameplay as it happens through there, instead of waiting for me to write a lengthy blog post. That would be one realistic and easy way to stay connected with my audience while giving them a glimpse of the person behind the blog. Additionally, TikTok could be another reasonable place to incorporate transmedia, since games are a visual experience. Content from the blog can be previewed to reach a broader audience, and TikTok is an entirely different medium that opens up opportunities for short-form, bite-sized content that isn’t suitable for Twitter.

References

Jenkins, H. (2007, March 21). Transmedia Storytelling 101. Henry Jenkins. Retrieved April 3, 2023, from http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101.html

Process Post 10: Revisiting Accessibility

As the final weeks of the course are coming to a close, I wanted to revisit accessibility to ensure that I covered as many bases that I could on my blog.

So far, I’ve installed the AccessibleWP plugin by codenroll on my blog, which covers the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) principles of “perceivable” and “operable” outlined by the Accessible Publishing Learning Network. It does this by ensuring that vision- and hearing-affected visitors to my website are able to interpret it using their assistive devices or by using keyboard navigation. In particular, there are functions in this plugin that makes links stand out by highlighting them on the page. I also made sure that my links were clear by having them underlined, so that links are perceivable by the user or that there is an interaction available where they are.

Additionally, while the font size on my site is set to size 16, 2 sizes larger than the recommendation of 14 by APLN, the theme I am using scales the text size when responding to different screen sizes, which I haven’t figured out how to control. Thankfully, AccessibleWP covers this with their “Increase Text” function, which allows me to set a scale to increase the text size to for ease of reading.

There was a great point made in APLN’s Introduction to Website Accessibility article, which mentioned that those who use screen readers can opt to hear a list of all the links on my website. I realized that on my homepage, there are two major navigational links that actually don’t describe very much when taken out of context: one that says “More” which leads to my about page, and one that says “More adventures” which leads to my main blog posts in a category I call “Adventure Log”. I’ve now renamed those links to “How it all began” and “Full adventure log” in order to make it more perceivable what kind of content will be found when entering those links.

Currently, I’m a bit behind on adding alt-text to all of my images, but revisiting this article reminded me of an article I read at some point that mentioned that even decorative images, like my site logo, could benefit from a brief description—but that they must be brief, so that those who use alt-text can understand quickly what content is useful to them.

Process Post 9: SEO & Audience Growth

In State of Mobile 2022, Data.ai reports that each user spent on average 4.8 hours on their phones, which is one-third of the time we typically are awake. Reflecting on my own device usage, my screen time averaged about 10 hours and 50 minutes across all of my devices in the last week alone. Of course, this covers more than just my phone—so a more realistic look that I’m able to access is my social media usage, which has solely been on my phone. Just yesterday, I was guilty of being on TikTok for 9 hours and 7 minutes, which is so wild.

As somebody who clearly spends an unhealthy amount of time on social media, I believe SEO is crucial to reaching the customers, readers, subscribers, and users you want—whether you’re an individual or a business. Whoever your intended audience is, SEO is a force that captures leads towards what you are putting out in the digital world. In “15 Reasons Why Your Business Absolutely Needs SEO,” it states that SEO can boost the effectiveness of the user experience of a website, and can drive trust and credibility in an online space (Hollingsworth, 2021). Over time, trust and credibility can be built with consistent care for SEO, to keep brands relevant and more easily discoverable. When we better understand how our own audience is trying to find us and meet them where they are, we’ve already created a trail that they can start to follow.

SEO doesn’t just cover websites either—for example, Instagram users heavily rely on hashtags to extend the reach of their posts beyond those who already follow them. By making sure they use the right hashtags, users can reach more people who find their content relevant. When I used to post for a small Instagram shop I was running with my friend, a decent amount of time was spent testing combinations of hashtags, from ones that had less than 10,000 posts to ones that had over 300,000 posts in them, to see how popular and lesser-known hashtags would affect our post reach. The analytics we reflected on in our Professional account each week helped us see which posts were doing well, which hashtags were associated with it, and where our audience was coming from, so we could continue to target those people.

It’s not easy to build an audience from the ground up, but with consistent effort and reflection, it’s definitely possible. However, in our heavily saturated digital world, I’ve observed that it takes zeroing in on a niche, as well as being insanely active on multiple platforms, to really see growth. With the need for a considerable amount of effort, the communities that last online are likely founded on passion rather than a fleeting need to go viral.

References

Hollingsworth, S. (2021, August 6). 15 Reasons Why Your Business Absolutely Needs SEO. Search Engine Journal. Retrieved on March 18, 2023, from https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-seo-is-important-for-business/248101/

Community guidelines

Reflecting on my site and its values, it is important I clearly state my guidelines for optimal functionality. I am looking to share content that brings value. For this reason, my platform is a welcoming environment where I wish to build a community of likeminded individuals as well as onboard others into this awesome new space. My inbox is always open, though I expect those who contact me through any of my social channels are respectful and amicable as I will do the same.  If there are ever questions or topics you wish to speak more on I am happy to organize a time to speak. Please feel free share new findings or trends occurring in the space if you are following it as well because the more information the better.

I believe these are the guidelines that suit my platform the best as I wish to engage my audience in conversation as much as possible. I believe clearly stating my wish for amicable discussion is effective as there will always be individuals who do not agree with all my perspectives. I will implement them via posting my guidelines for all users to see as the earlier it is known the better.

Understanding analytics, understanding your consumers

Understanding analytics and consumer habits is such a crucial factor to being a successful content creator and business owner. As I dive deeper into the growth and marketing side to business I have begun taken much more notice into these processes. I have just recently started utilizing the analytics functions for my sites but it has been super helpful when it comes to understanding the way people interact and navigate your site/platform. Something I have noticed for myself is that my general site navigation needs to be optimized, when your site entices users to continue to explore and consume the job is being done and I found that through analytical assessment there are certain categories that tend to block users from continuing. With this new information I have made alterations and look forward to reassessing in a few weeks to see the results.

Essay #1

As a social media user, I want to warn people who follow me to be careful. For some reason, social media is not where you come to see your friends as it used to be the fun of it. Instead, I feel as though I am being fed information. I now see more outrageous accounts that spew hate and try to influence my beliefs to match what I see on platforms. My Facebook is filled with massive amounts of news from accounts that I do not remember following; they have very strong opinions towards specific topics that are very hateful to minorities and vulnerable groups in our society. I am trying to understand why this is happening, and I have been researching to give you information on how our behaviours are being collected. This is to educate the public to utilize the internet carefully as it is a shadow of its old self.

If you see on Twitter, everyone here can agree that we have at least ten bots followers. Most people do not get retweets; instead, they get that random one that gets you excited, and then you realize it’s a fake account again. The article discusses bots and how these bots essentially mimic our behaviours and can be utilized to push traction on news that aims to convince us for political gain (UC, 2022). These bots are created by people who are essentially employees at for-profit corporations that are paid to influence behaviour (UC, 2022). An example is in the last United States elections; the Russian Internet Research Agency hired people who could understand American culture and speak good English to push news, comments and like posts that rile up the population (UC, 2022). These accounts aim to polarize the American public to the point that they would undermine our government and put us on a path to a falling empire (UC, 2022). This is inherently the goal of bots and the cause for their growing number; it is so bad that 8.5% of Twitter accounts are bots (UC, 2022). This explains why you have that one loyal follower that gives you a retweet every time you tweet.

Another interesting journal by Bansal writes about the patchwork of policy working to fend off misinformation (Bansal, 2019). He discusses how the US election created doubt in American democracy, and many experts confirmed that foreign influences played a path in that election. Multiple groups on Facebook that had bots were influenced strongly (Bansal, 2019). Facebook had to roll out sweeping measures, which surprisingly worked and provided relief. However, there is still animosity on Twitter with the hate groups and negative/fake news getting more aggressive in micro-targeting. The new wave of social media sensation is a prime example of this; many young men and almost every person on the planet now know Andrew Tate. The individual was not someone I saw on my page a few weeks ago, but now I cannot stop seeing him after googling him once. It is horrible on Facebook and TikTok.

Governments have started releasing legislation to punish people who push fake news to sway the public. Canada, Singapore, France, Brazil and Egypt have some of the most severe punishments. Another example is the study “SCM,” which presented results on research on a Facebook platform, showing that most people use comments to gauge false and real news (Kluck, 1970). The growing number of bots can, therefore, either undermine factual information or uplift fake news in the worst-case scenario. The article by Beshai (2018) utilizes nodes to illustrate how deep and far false news travels compared to real news on Twitter; very stark imagery called cascades is formed. 3D tools demonstrate how broad and deep false and true news travel (Beshai, 2018). The study uses a visualizing this type of data where “breadth is (how many times a given tweet is retweeted) corresponds to the width of the tree, and depth (how many “generations” of retweeting occur) corresponds to the height” (Beshai, 2018). This imagery provides a more straightforward interpretation of the state of our situation. This is a wake-up call for the public to be wary and vigilant in consuming information.

I am not here to spread doom and gloom but to inform the public that this is real and could affect our society. Hence, I will provide insight into how Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms can reduce how false news penetrates our system. The study called “Real Solutions for Fake News?” (2019) states that using disputed news tags can help inform the public of inaccuracy by about 10% from the base of 29% who believed initially. The other tag used in this study is false news which helped reduce the spread from the base of 29% to 16%, a 13% reduction (Clayton, 2019). I believe some corporate social responsibility is warranted, and companies should invest more in fact-checking to protect society.

Finally, I believe guides from the article “Fake News” will help reduce society’s vulnerability. Questions I recommend asking oneself are: “Does the article come from an established, credible and rigorously fact-oriented news organization such as ABC, The Guardian or The Wall Street Journal? If not, encourage students to consider the general character of the publication: how are its stories presented? Who owns the organization, and are they interested in promoting a particular view?” (Henry, 2020)Other possibilities are checking the URL link, checking for satire, using fact-checking websites, a simple google search and various types of bias (Henry, 2020). Confirmation bias is one that I found myself falling in tune with some news outlets. This could be as simple as stereotypes about a place, and then a story comes up that could run as evidence for the said stereotype. The last article shows how the use of fact-checking, either imposed or voluntary, reduces the spread of fake news by 25% (Chadwick, 2021). The study also highlights the reduction of false news sharing by 67% per viewer by educating them on fact-checking and increases their sharing of fact-checked news by 58% (Chadwick, 2021). Hence, I believe being vigilant in self-awareness can be a massive tool for navigating the internet in these times of upcoming mid-term elections.

References:

Beshai, P. (2018, March 9). Cover stories: Visualizing the spread of true and false news on social … Retrieved November 9, 2022, from https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aat4382

Bansal, S. (2019, October 4). The patchwork of policy working to fend off misinformation. Centre for International Governance Innovation. Retrieved November 8, 2022, from https://www.cigionline.org/articles/patchwork-policy-working-fend-misinformation/

Clayton, K., Blair, S., Busam, J. A., Forstner, S., Glance, J., Green, G., Kawata, A., Kovvuri, A., Martin, J., Morgan, E., Sandhu, M., Sang, R., Scholz-Bright, R., Welch, A. T., Wolff, A. G., Zhou, A., & Nyhan, B. (2019, February 11). Real solutions for fake news? measuring the effectiveness of general warnings and fact-check tags in reducing belief in false stories on social media – political behavior. SpringerLink. Retrieved November 8, 2022, from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-019-09533-0

Chadwick, A., Vaccari, C., & Kaiser, J. (2021, March 17). The amplification of exaggerated and false news on social media: The roles of platform use, motivations, affect, and ideology. figshare. Retrieved November 8, 2022, from https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/The_amplification_of_exaggerated_and_false_news_on_social_media_the_roles_of_platform_use_motivations_affect_and_ideology/14223083

Henry, E., Zhuravskaya, E., & Guriev, S. (2020, June 4). Checking and sharing alt-facts. SSRN. Retrieved November 8, 2022, from https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3597191

Kluck, J. P., Schaewitz, L., & Krämer, N. (1970, January 1). [PDF] doubters are more convincing than advocates. the impact of user comments and ratings on credibility perceptions of false news stories on social media: Semantic scholar. undefined. Retrieved November 8, 2022, from https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Doubters-are-more-convincing-than-advocates.-The-of-Kluck-Schaewitz/f32cfce6e8ec2331481a300085ff39e99ecaac6b

UC, S. B. (2022, November 8). How is fake news spread? bots, people like you, trolls, and. Center for Information Technology and Society – UC Santa Barbara. Retrieved November 8, 2022, from https://www.cits.ucsb.edu/fake-news/spread

Mini Assignment #4 (video remixing)

Grilled Salmon Recipe from YouTube Shorts

I was craving grilled salmon steak today and saw this juicy recipe. Today, I decided to make my own grilled salmon steak by remixing the recipe!

Recipe:

  • Salmon
  • Black Pepper
  • Salt
  • Mustard
  • Mayonnaise
  • Garlic
  • Green Beans
  • Enoki Mushroom
  • Oyster Mushroom
  • Yellow Potato
  • Olive Oil
  • Rosemary
  • 1 Table Butter
  • Green Onion
  • Sugar

First, you have to marinate the salmon with black pepper and salt. Do not marinate the skin so we can cook the salmon crispy. Leave it for about 10 mins, and let’s make the sauce! Mix 1 teaspoon mustard with 1 tablespoon mayonnaise and add two spoons of sugar. If you want more sweetness in your sauce, you can add more sugar. Slice the green onion and mix it with the sauce. When you’re done with making the sauce, slice the garlic thinly and take out your favourite frying pan. Put about 4 tablespoons of olive oil and fry the garlic until it’s brown and crispy. When the garlic is crispy enough, take out the garlic and put marinated salmon into the garlic oil.

Press the salmon for about 10 seconds, so the skin is grilled crispy enough. Lower the heat and leave the salmon for 5 mins. Take out half the butter, rosemary and more sliced garlic and add to the frying pan. Let the butter melt and mix with the scent of rosemary and garlic. When it melts, use a spoon to spread melted butter oil over the thick part of the salmon so that all parts of the salmon are cooked evenly. Do not throw away the oil because it will be used to cook vegetables.

Now the salmon is cooked, it’s time to cook the vegetables. Make a hole in the potato with a sharp fork and put it in the microwave for 8 mins. While the potato is cooking, Put enoki mushroom, oyster mushroom, and green beans into the oil that we cooked salmon. Add half the butter and stir until the mushrooms are slightly brown.

Finally, decorate the plate with sauce, rosemary, and fried garlic and put everything we cooked! It’s time to eat, yum! 🙂

Here’s my actual result; it was so crispy, buttery, and had so much flavour! Hope you love it too.

Grilled Salmon Steak Cooked By Me

“Two’s, Seven’s, and E’s for F’s”

Remixing something? Hmmm… I created a piece of art for my remix, so if you are interested why I chose what I did- this is why. As I work in this abstract sector we call crypto, I see astonishing art and digital collectibles traded all day. When I began, it all seemed so confusing and bizarre but as time past I became addicted.

Do not get me wrong, there is plenty of garbage out there but hidden in all this noise I have found some of the most impressing artists and people. The work I chose to remix is by an man name Tyler Hobbs. Texas born, digital artist produced many collections but this one specifically resulted in some of the biggest sales in web3. When I say big, I mean big… like millions.

His collection called “Fidenzas” was my focus and I decided to utilize Adobe and combine the 3 most expensive pieces sold on secondary market into one. I called it the “Two’s, Seven’s, and E’s for F’s”, now why in the world would I call it that? Well because in total there was 2727 Ethereum transacted for pieces of art called Fidenza’s.

Go check it out in the mini assignments section!!

Process post #9

Copyright is a very sensitive subject because there is nothing more resentful than losing what you have created to others. When I chose the subject “perfume review” as my blog theme, I wasn’t even thinking of copyright. Everyone has a different opinion about the perfume, but some may have the same opinion. Then am I violating the copyright of the person who wrote the perfume review before me? The copyright for the Perfume review seems very vague. The definition of copyright I know is that you shouldn’t take someone else’s idea and claim that it’s your idea. However, the copyright for the opinions on perfumes is so vague and extensive that I cannot give an accurate definition.

In the article You Say Tomaydo, I say no copyright infringement: Recipe book not an original compilation by Henein; recipes are not subject to copyright because they are technically just a collection of facts. I actually never thought about the copyright of recipes, so this really shocked me. Are the representative recipes of famous chefs in the market not copyrighted? Perhaps the chefs are already famous, so the public will know that they are the chef’s recipes without copyright. But what about the recipes that ordinary people post on their media? If the recipe becomes very popular in the future and everyone insists it’s my recipe, the person who first shared it will be very sad. Since the recipe also has no copyright, there cannot be a copyright for perfume reviews which are vaguer than recipes. However, I don’t want to take someone else’s ideas and offend them, so I should be more careful from now on.

Reference:

Henein, P. (2015, October 29). You say tomaydo , I say no copyright infringement: Recipe book not an original compilation – copyright – canada. You Say Tomaydo , I Say No Copyright Infringement: Recipe Book Not An Original Compilation – Copyright – Canada. Retrieved November 3, 2022, from https://www.mondaq.com/canada/copyright/439012/you-say-tomaydo-i-say-no-copyright-infringement-recipe-book-not-an-original-compilation

Process post #8

Today, all issues in the world spread rapidly online and dominate people’s beliefs and opinions. All the news and videos that spread online often divide and incite people. Online is no longer a safe place. Can we really believe all the content and videos we see online? As mentioned in “something is wrong on the internet” by Bridle, the culture, politics, and interpersonal relationships considered central to own identity were shaped by the internet, and in ways that are beneficial. However, looking at the many controversies and stereotyped writings raised online today, I often wonder whether this online space will positively affect future generations.

I want to talk about how scary media manipulation is to people. It’s an intractable subject, but I’ll try to give you my honest opinion. For example, the famous George Floyd incident who was murdered by a police officer in Minneapolis. This was a genuinely devastating incident, and the police officer’s reputation went down to a very bad image ever since this incident happened. I think that all unreasonable and discriminatory police officers should be removed from their job titles. Hopefully, there will be a change within the police department through this case.

However, I also agree that media incitement has made all the police’s perceptions so bad. Now people only post bad things about police in their media; they never post good things police have done. It seems like they are trying to find a way to hate the police department and make the public to distrust them. We should know that while there are bad police officers, many good officers work hard every day with good motives to help citizens. These days, there are less police personnel, and very few people are applying to the police. Police are essential resources in society, but if people’s stereotypes of police do not change, it is going to be hard for police to help citizens. I feel that so many people are easily swept away by the media these days. It is important to train ourselves not to be too influenced by the media. 

Reference:

Bridle, J. (2018, June 21). Something is wrong on the internet. Medium. Retrieved November 3, 2022, from https://medium.com/@jamesbridle/something-is-wrong-on-the-internet-c39c471271d2

Process post #7

I’m going to be honest .. most of the websites I visit are online clothes, so I’m going to talk about https://www.fashionnova.com/ website, which I frequently visit. I believe if you’re a woman and love shopping online, you will for sure know about fashionnova because it is so popular. Whenever I visit their website, I never think about their design. From a design standpoint, the site has a lot to offer but is a little bit messy. I can’t say this website is well organized because when I first entered this website, it took me a while to understand their homepage. There is too much content on one homepage. It is noticeable that the website editor wanted to emphasize their anniversary sale. Still, the typography they chose does not really suit the website, and the size is too big, which makes the letter blurry. Also, there are way too many pictures and fewer explanations. Trying to put so much content on one page makes it difficult for readers to grasp what they want to find at a glance.

I noticed that they did well with dividing categories by section using many menu bars. There are so many different types of clothes that it is difficult to find a specific style that consumers want. However, all of these types are divided into sections, allowing consumers to enter the website and immediately click on the item they want to buy to shop. In addition, at the bottom of the page, there are links for information necessary for consumers, such as how to contact them, and the track order is clearly stated. Sometimes it’s hard to find the contact information on some websites. It was good to see that the information that is important to consumers was well organized at the bottom. Moreover, in the part that lists the wearing image and price of clothes, the price is written bigger and bold than the name of the clothes, making the eyes comfortable. It is also very convenient for consumers to find the available colours of the design without having to click on them because the editor displays a small coloured circle showing the colour’s availability.

lots of menu bars

Overall it is a good website that contains lots of information and products. However, if they organize their homepage with fewer photos and a smaller size of the font, customers will find the website more accessible and more convenient. 

https://www.fashionnova.com/

Process post #6

In fact, I didn’t spend much time maintaining my blog in October. Whenever I enter my blog, I try to fix many loopholes, but it is difficult to touch them because I am afraid of making them worse. Finally, my blog has been reorganized to some extent, and I have learned a lot during that period. As I mentioned in my previous process post, my desire to make an aesthetically pleasing website is important, but accessibility also matters. I made up my blog, constantly thinking about whether the direction I was pursuing also coincided with the accessibility factor. 

My biggest problem was building my main page, which is the homepage. I tried to separate my homepage from the about page, but then there was not much to put on my homepage since I chose a very white and minimalistic theme. The white theme made my empty homepage look even more empty. So I decided to put the About section on the homepage. Therefore, as soon as readers enter my blog, they can see what this blog defines right away, and my blog looks full. Also, when readers first entered my blog, too many menus could confuse them, so I left a minimal menu bar and erased all the rest. Considering the accessibility factors of readers, I was heading in the direction of the blog I wanted. I’m still inexperienced, but I’m proud of myself for decorating the blog considering both of these things, and I want to make this blog more accessible in the future.

Do not copy copy

For a process post, I thought to share my thoughts around copying content and what I believe is the ethical approach worth considering. I have always been an observant individual and when it comes to content consumption, I continue to see many similar posts in the crypto twitter space. I personally believe content comes mainly from iteration and that is why I see it as a great utility to improve the content you are creating. That being said, it is not about copying directly but more consuming and adding your own flavour will translate to better pieces of online work. It is something difficult to grasp but very important in understanding. I have been listening to many Twitter spaces and I was listening to a very well respected individual in my respective industry that was adamant in being ok with copying as long as it does not involve plagiarism. It is something to be weary of as you do not want to put yourself in a situation that can discredit your work.

Process post #4 (Imaginary Audience!)

Imagining who my audience is for this website, I have to go back to when I first decided on the topic of my blog. It seemed like deciding what i want to write on my blog was easy. However, even after a day or two, there was yet to be a topic I was sure of. Then suddenly, I saw my perfumes unexpectedly and asked myself a question. Do I love perfume? Do I know perfumes well enough to recommend them to others? The answer was yes! There was nothing to hesitate about when the topic was decided.

As it is a blog that explains and recommends perfume, I wanted the blog design to be as minimalistic and white as possible. Why does white come to mind when you think of perfume? If you ask me, I have no choice but to say “just because”.. perfume is like clean white paper to me. Perfume is colourless like white paper; It is colourless and unnoticeable, but perfume leaves a strong impression on people and sometimes makes them reminiscent. Just as a dot on the blank paper changes the mood of the drawing paper, so does the perfume. The smell and atmosphere vary widely depending on what you draw on the clean white paper. People like me who are interested in fragrances and love perfumes will understand why white comes to mind when they think of perfumes.

The readers of my blog are people who are interested in perfumes like me. I tried to express the noble feeling of perfume through the impression of a blog that looked as concise and clean as possible. To talk about the content, there are two main things that people who are interested in perfume want to look for. A realistic review of the perfume they are curious about and a perfume recommendation. I tried to satisfy two things that perfume lovers would be most curious about.

To be honest, I’m very picky and sensitive when it comes to perfumes. The scents that most of the public loves are often just such perfumes for me. I like less well-known, unique and neutral scents that others don’t use much rather than scents that the public will prefer. My writings would be quite interesting for readers who really love perfumes and spend time looking at perfume reviews. My reviews will also be welcome for those who are tired of non-realistic perfume views that include ads. The readers I’ve imagined so far are people like me who love perfumes, are tired of dishonest perfume views, and are looking for unique perfumes as well as recommendations!

Process #10

In this week’s peer review, I received feedback on my website structure.

My peer mentioned that I had a lack of sub menus and my home page was lacking as a landing page. They stressed that my landing page allows users to see my posts right away, although the value of an introduction is high with an unknown blog. I addressed this my creating more selections within my menu for categories as well as updating my home page to be a static page with an intro.

The end of a chapter but the beginning of a book

The end of a chapter but the beginning of a book

For as long as I can remember, my camera has always been my side-kick.  Something about being able to capture a moment, an emotion, or a light in turn captured me.  From the beginning of the semester I knew I wanted to create an online space for my photography. In reality, it was the reason I enrolled in PUB 101; while I didn’t lack initiative, I lacked the knowledge and tools to create and curate a platform for my photography.  Finding a domain name and aesthetic was the first challenge.  It was important to have a very visual, professional, and clean blog – a space where images could stand out. Eventually, after much thought, I settled on One More Klick.

One More Klick features a blend of photography, travel, and the outdoors. “Klick” is another word for kilometre, which was very fitting with both the outdoor and travel aspects of tis blog, marking the distance traveled, in addition to klick also being the phonetic sounds of a camera’s shutter.  Since traveling, photography, and the outdoors are a passion of mine, I aspire to always challenge myself by going further, reaching higher, and persevering through the fear of the unknown.  For these reasons, there will always be one more klick – whether it be one more photograph, or one more kilometre.

With the help of photographs taken during various travels and adventures, my blog aims to share the stories behind photos, and provide context.  While some posts feature more personal stories, they still hold some informative content – whether it be in the form of tips and tricks, political context, or specific photography settings to achieve a photograph.

Currently, the majority of the audience reading One More Klick consists of direct family and friends, with some page views coming from countries outside of North America. Some of the perks of traveling abroad include creating friendships and connections across the globe.  Maintaining these friendships are even easier in light of the digital age.  According to the 2018 Digital Media Report, there are over 4 billion active internet users across the globe, and there has been a 13% increase in active social media users since January 2017.  The internet allows for greater connectivity, breaking the barriers of time and space.  In just the touch of a finger, users can connect with anyone, anywhere.  This immediacy has allowed me to connect with people from around the globe in little to no time.  For example, I reached out to Hasham to ask for his permission to post his photograph for the Friends in Foreign Places blog post.  Despite residing in Qatar at the time, within a few hours I received a response and we were connected once again.

This is especially useful for this blog, as I hope to expand the audience internationally.  Already, this blog has most of its’ international traffic coming from the United States, with other countries including France, the United Kingdom, Australia, Croatia, Ireland, and Luxembourg to name a few.  

It’s possible that some of the page views from the countries above are just bots, which are basically software that run automated tasks over the internet.  This would become more apparent when cross referencing with the amount of time spent on the page and the bounce rate.  Because I don’t know of anyone personally in Kenya, Sri Lanka, or Russia, I would assume that they aren’t actually real people reading my blog.  If you’re reading this and you are currently in Kenya, Sri Lanka, or Russia, let me know!

With the goal of eventually creating a stronger following and international audience, having a strong social media presence would be a huge asset.  Currently, Facebook, Youtube, and Instagram hold the podium for most popular social networking sites:

2018 Digital Media Report, page 68

“Let’s face it: we have entered an era of media convergence that makes the flow of content across multiple media channels almost inevitable.”

Henry Jenkins, 2003

In his article Transmedia Storytelling, Jenkins (2003) highlights the importance of using a multitude of different social media platforms as opposed to restricting your content to just one.  The advantage here is not only more exposure, but also meeting your audience where they are.  With this is mind, I have created a Facebook page to share my blog posts.  Having a separate page for One More Klick that is independent from my personal page means traffic won’t be restricted by my own personal privacy settings.  Eventually, I will create an Instagram page which will feature different photographs linking them to their blog posts.  If it weren’t for social media, very few people would know about my blog and even fewer would be reading it. 

With blog posts being shared on social media, it was increasingly important for my blog to be responsive and mobile friendly. In Design Machines: How to survive in the digital Apocalypse, Travis Gertz (2015) criticizes the homogeneity of basic website designs. While I was trying to create a unique and customized aesthetic for my website, I ran into some serious challenged. While the desktop version worked perfectly, the layout didn’t translate well for mobile devices. As the majority of internet users access websites on their mobile devices, it was extremely important for my website to be responsive and mobile-friendly.

Social media allowed for networking and collaborations with other artists.  My first essay 21st Century Nudes covered the topic of censorship of artistic nudity on social media platforms. This essay was inspired by Vince Hemingson, a photographer, filmmaker, and bestselling author based out of Vancouver, who’s beautiful photographs routinely encounter censorship.  In wanting to share my essay on social media, I reached out to Vince for permission to tag him.  Not only did he agree and share my article with his network, he commended my work and asked for my feedback and comments on his Artist’s Statement for his Nude in the Landscape series.

Already, creating this blog has allowed me to build concrete skills by learning how to use WordPress and Google Analytics, along with broadening my artistic and professional network. This blog acts as a live document, changing and improving as I continue to learn and create. I plan on continuing this blog alongside my adventures, and hope that one day it might flourish into something larger.



References

Gertz, T. (2015). Design Machines. How to survive in the digital Apocalypse. July 2015. Retrieved from https://louderthanten.com/articles/story/design-machines

Hemingson, V. n.d. Artist’s Statement: The Nude in the Landscape. n.d. Retrieved from http://hemingsonphotography.com/fine-art/nude-in-the-landscape/

Jenkins, H. (2003). Transmedia Storytelling. January 15 2003. Retrieved from https://www.technologyreview.com/s/401760/transmedia-storytelling/

Kemp, S. (2018). We are social – Digital report 2018. Retrieved from https://digitalreport.wearesocial.com/

Transmedia Reporting and Electronic Music

This morning I was reading an article by lecturer and professor Henry Jenkins about effective use of transmedia forms and the entertainment industry’s slugish ability in adopting the form.

‘Transmedia’ is a term that describes a media phenomenon that exists across multiple platforms and which facilitates different user experiences depending on the platform. Pokemon is one of the best examples of a transmedia concept, as identified by Jenkins. The Pokemon world is one that exists across TV series’, movies, manga, video games, card games, and etc.

The Wartortle universe is expanded by this expertly crafted fan-music.

Transmedia Journalism

As the transmedia practice tends to enrich a users interaction with subject matter and offer a user opportunities to demonstrate agency with media interaction, I believe that the practice would benefit journalism.

In fact, journalism has exists transmedia since the printing press entered popular use, when one could,perhaps, receive news from both a town crier and a local pamphlet.

In this day and age, news about an event is delivered in print, on the radio, and across the internet in the form of news outlets, blogs, or podcasts.

Transmedia Music Journalism

Music reporting and journalism are, by definition, transmedia. Listening to the music of a local musician who I recently read an interview from will broaden my impression of that musician.

When writing about music on Ammeter, linking to that music or accompanying an article with a recorded interview is transmedia. I wonder about other ways that I can expand transmedia practice as a electronic music reporter. Below are a list of ideas. Let me know if any stand out to you!

  • Print expertly designed posters concerning electronic music events that Ammeter appreciates and paste them up around town.
  • Print and distribute local electronic music guide-zines that inform readers about Vancouver’s grassroots electronic music organizers.
  • Post emails or “letters to the editor” from readers concerning their experiences with particular venues or events.
  • Post music produced by Ammeter staff after they’ve attending a music production workshop.
  • Hand write and hand out endearing notes to dancers at music events that are “from Ammeter.”

It feels like linking to music and posting podcasts / or interviews are insubstantial in modern journalism. Branching out to new forms of media could only benefit the publication.

Adam

Peer Review #3

This week, I had the pleasure to visit Jill’s Book Blog.Jill's Book Blog Homepage

Jill’s Book Blog — Adventures of Accessible Reading, as it states quite clearly in the title tag, is all about books. Reading through Jillian’s blog, I learnt so much about her and her favourite thing to do EVER — Reading!! In 2018, she read 96 books in 365, which is so crazily impressive. Jill’s Book Blog at the moment features three categories: Book Reviews, Accessible Reading and Posiel. From the type of content that Jillian has been constantly posted, i think the intended audience of the blog are book lovers like Jillian herself. People who would be frequent visitors of Jill’s blog are people who love reading, who also love to learn more about certain books and how others think of them. And since most of the books that have been reviewed are mostly fictions, romance, thrillers, etc, I figure the demographic of Jill’s blog are the demographic of these books, which are mostly teens to young adults and young professional, predominately female. And lastly, in most of the post, Jillian’s tone of voice seems quite lighthearted, excited, and playful most of the time, which also leads me to believe that the age of the intended audience of Jill’s Book Blog are around 17 to 30.

In my opinion, Jillian has done a great job in terms of keeping her audience engaged with her constant and high-quality content. The design of her website is fairly simple. There is quite a lot of white space, which is a great thing, since it makes the blog seems way less cluttered. On that note, the fact that there are not too many menu options also makes the blog seems less overwhelming. When I visit Jill’s website, I always find myself feeling calm and collected. And a lot of that has to do with the timeless design that Jillian has chosen. One thing that I do wish Jill’s blog could improve itself on, would be the homepage. At the moment, when users of its site opens the homepage for the first time, it has all of the most recent posts on one page, positioned vertically, and it causes the homepage to be quite long. Since most of the audience of Jill’s blog are around our age, I think it would nice to make the homepage slightly shorter with more directions to the posts. In that way, her audience could find what they want a bit easier, and it would decrease the bounce rate of her site. Another thing that I think could be improved would be finding some way to break up some of the text-heavy content. Since it is a mostly text-based site, it would be nice to see some more breaks in between paragraphs, it could be by highlightin certain quotes, adding images, or just adding simple lines and subheading, in order to keep her audience even more engaged with her content.

Overall, I’ve really enjoyed Jill’s Book Blog, and I am excited to see where this blog would develop and process in the future.

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